Rock Solid Recap: Jhoulys (yo-lees) Chacin (cha-sheen)

That's exactly how you win in San Francisco.

Rockies 4, Giants 1

Winning Player: Jhoulys Chacin

Admire this line: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K

Despite the 3 walks, Chacin pounded the strike zone today for all seven innings. When he did walk a guy, he made good pitches to get the next guy out. He didn't allow innings to spiral out of control by pitching scared or getting down on himself, he went on the attack and got outs.

Without the benefit of free passes and good hitting counts to create traffic, the Giants offense was unable to string together hits, and thus they were unable to create runs.

It's a simple formula. Not always easy to execute, but that's exactly how you do it.

And did you notice how dead the crowd was? Few teams feed off their crowd like the Giants do, so eliminating that element early was a nice plus. They only got excited a couple times late in the game.

Save: Franklin Morales

Remember... this is me awarding Franklin with a save.  There was no official save in the game today.  

One of those times came in the 8th inning as Matt Daley sturggled to get outs. He exited with runners on 1st & 2nd with 1 out. Franklin Morales would silence the crowd quickly, though, as he blew away Andres Torres and Pablo Sandoval.

I know I'm in the minority, but my faith in Franklin hasn't wavered.  His stuff today is a good reason why.

Manny Corpas took the ninth, allowed the home run to Huff, but rebounded nicely. No save, but another good inning.

Offense

Very pleased with the ABs today. Like I said, the Rockies have to value their scoring opportunities more in San Francisco (and all road ballparks really). They did today. They were aggressive (Jason Giambi swiped a big... seriously) on the bases, yet patient at the plate.

Four runs may not look like a great pay off for all that work, but any time you can grind out four on the Giants, in their park, you'll take it. And then you just pray the pitching makes it hold up.

It did hold up.

That'll make for a nice flight to San Diego this evening. This is a golden opportunity to gain some momentum. The Padres are due for a downfall eventually. Why not get it started for them tomorrow night at Petco?  And why not win a series on the road?  That's a bit overdue as well.

****
Chacin The Dream (Rockies Review)

Definitely a Chacin theme today.